The Maine Law Advocate

AGRICULTURAL

Diseases of Plants.

At a recent meeting of the London Central Farmers' Club, some very sensible remarks were made on the above-named subject by Mr. Nesbit a member of the National Agricultural Society of France. A few of the most practical or suggestive of these remarks we herewith present to our readers in a condensed form.

Atmospheric changes affect the condition of plants, producing either healthy or unhealthy action. Diseases appear and disappear in a remarkable manner, depending probably on atmospheric conditions. The cholera is of recent introduction, while the plague, of earlier date and different characteristics, is no longer known.—The potato disease is entirely new, and no one has explained, to the universal satisfaction, the peculiar causes or conditions upon which it depends. When Mr. Nesbit was in France in 1853, the subject of disease of the vine was discussed at the Nat. Ag. Society, and it was satisfactorily demonstrated that a mixture of lime, sulphur and water, boiled together, when diluted and sprinkled over the vines, completely cured the disease. This and other observations had led him to believe that there were, probably, many diseases of plants which arose from the want of sulphur, or which might be cured by its application. He had, in his own experience, known the mould in the hop cured by sulphurous compounds. When gypsum was first introduced its effects were almost marvellous, owing to the fact that sulphur or sulphuric acid was much wanted in the soils. With regard to the potato disease, he had known cases in which sulphate of soda, (Glauber's salts,) or sulphate of potash, had been applied as manure, and in which the disease had not appeared at all, or only in a very mitigated form. From what he had observed, he thought it probable that the potato disease might arise from a want of sulphur in the soil; or, if not, that the application of sulphur might cure it. Fingers and toes in turnips arose from a want of lime in the soil, and he had known many cases in which the application of good lime or chalk had entirely prevented the recurrence of the disease. He thought a little salt with the lime would be beneficial. The mildew in wheat depends on too great luxuriance in the nutrition of the plant, the result of too much nitrogenous manure in the soil, or too much rain, which bro't down nitric acid and ammonia. If the quantity of rain could be regulated or predicted, mildew in wheat might be prevented. "There are many substances which check luxuriance of vegetation, and among them lime and salt. From three to five cwts. of either of these, or a mixture of them to each acre, would prevent luxuriance in the growth of the straw and check mildew in wheat."

During the same session of this Farmers' Club at which the above remarks were made, one member stated, in regard to the potato disease, that he had applied salt and lime with very general success, in the proportion of one part of salt to two parts of lime. He applied forty bushels of the mixture per acre, put broadcast upon the soil before planting; and with that application on a gravelly soil, he had never suffered from the potato disease. In reply, another member stated that he was quite satisfied from the results of several experiments, that what will prevent potato disease one year, will not prevent it another.

Country Gent.